A wide variety of carpet styles are readily available for installation in home and office settings. In order to show prospective buyers these styles, a carpet salesman must carry a large number of carpet swatches to meetings with buyers. Typically, these carpet swatches are held together in a "flip-book," i.e., a number of small squares or rectangles of carpet bound together at one edge, allowing the buyer to flip through the various different styles. Flip-books are bulky and not particularly stable, making the flip-book difficult to use and even more difficult to carry from meeting to meeting.
Carpet sample books have been developed in an effort to address the problems associated with carrying and displaying carpet samples. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,138 to Thompson, entitled "Carpet Display Sample Kit," discloses a sample kit comprising a box and a support tray. While Thompson's kit makes it easier to carry a number of carpet samples, it accommodates only a limited number of samples. Moreover, Thompson's kit is relatively complex and requires several parts. This may increase the weight of the kit, making it bulky and difficult to carry. Multi-part construction also increases the cost and complexity of manufacture.
Thus, it is desirable to provide a means for holding carpet swatches which is lightweight, easy to manufacture and capable of carrying and displaying a large number of carpet samples.